BOCA RATON, Fla. – The new year is just barely two months old,and already the mortgage industry experts says the foreclosuretrends for the U.S. in 2006 bear watching.. According to datareleased by Foreclosure.com, 91,905 foreclosed properties wereavailable for sale in the U.S. just in December – an increase of12.7% from November. The total number of new foreclosures listedfor sale in December – 24,124 – increased 7.7% from the previousmonth. These increases, said Foreclosure.com, are the highestmonth-to-month increase of both new and total foreclosures sinceMarch 2005. Broken out by regions of the U.S., the South – Alabama,Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, NorthCarolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – led theU.S. with a 17.4% increase in new foreclosures from November toDecember and a 9% increase just in new foreclosures over the sameperiod. The Midwest region showed the second highest percentageincreases, followed by the Northeast and West regions,respectively. Foreclosure.com President/CEO Brad Geisen said while“it is premature to predict that December's inventory indicates aforeclosure crisis in the U.S., this rise in inventory, which ishigher than in recent years, should be closely monitored as 2006begins.”